Monday, December 16, 2013

An éclair is an oblong French's pastry made with choux dough filled with cream.The word comes from French éclair 'flash of lightning', that's why Chinese also named as 闪电泡芙. And a traditional Fraisier is crème mousseline (pastry cream with extra butter) and strawberries sandwiched between two sheets of heavily imbibed sponge (genoise) cake, you can read more here. When Fraisier and Éclair combine together, it became an awesome pastry !!When I read this post talking about Christophe Adam (a French patissier who specialises in eclairs) creation of Fraisier Eclairs, I immediately decided to create this pastry at home.

Eclairs with Pistachio white chocolate ganache that topped with roasted pistachio, strawberry jelly and fresh strawberry, they are simply awesome!﻿

I especially love this pistachio white chocolte ganache, yum!﻿

I still use back the choux recipe which I learnt from Academy Pastry Arts Malaysia..and don't forgot to also make the crunchy Craquelin that put on top of choux.﻿

This Fraisier Eclairs is perfect to serve during Christmas time, but I have to warn you that it take quite some time to make this..

1. Boil together milk, water, butter and sugar
in a saucepan over medium high flame.

2. Remove from heat, using a wooden spoon,
quickly stir in sifted flour until combined and mixture comes together into a
ball. Return to low heat and cook, stirring constantly until the mixture leave
the sides of the saucepan and film forms on the bottom of the pan (3-4mins).

4. Gradually add in egg mixture and stir to
incorporate (you may use wooden spatula to stir or use a mixer with paddle
attachment to beat). Mix thoroughly until desired texture ( to check-scooping
it up using a wooden spoon, the batter should hang down about 20sec before drop
down).

5. Spoon batter into a piping bag fitted with
a 2cm star piping tip. Pipe 5” lengths on a baking tray line with non-stick
baking paper, allow 2"-3" gap in between each batter. Place a small
piece of Craquelin on top.

6. Bake at preheated oven at 200c for 20mins
(to cook and puff it up) at middle rack, reduce temperature to 180C and
continue to bake for another 15mins or until brown ( to firm up ).

7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For
pistachio-white chocolate Ganache

*enough to decorate 10pcs Eclairs

150 ml whipping cream(dairy)

125 g white chocolate

30g pistachio (roasted)

A drop of green food colouring,
optional

Method

1. Bring whipping cream to scalding
(steaming) point in a heavy base pan or in microwave. Once you start seeing
small bubbles appearing along the sides, turn the heat off and add chopped
chocolates into it. Leave it for couple of minutes and then stir well until
combined.

2. Grind pistachio into fine powder and
mix it well into the Ganache.

3. Leave it in fridge until it the
mixture is really cold. Then whip it up to form stiff peaks and firms up enough
to pipe or spoon. It should not be runny and should be stiff and easy to
spread. White chocolate may take few hours to harden, but if it gets too stiff,
place in the microwave and warm for few seconds until spreadable. you can also
whip the Ganache once the mixture is really cold.

For
the strawberry jelly

100g strawberries, chopped

2tbsp sugar

2tbsp water

1tsp gelatine powder

1tbsp hot water

Method

1.Place chopped strawberries, sugar
and water in a small pot, let it cook for 2-3 minutes or until thick.

2.Mix gelatine and hot water and stir
till it turned melt (or you may melt it over a pot of simmering water).

3. Add into strawberry compote, mix
well.

4.Let it set in the refrigerate.

To assemble Frasier Eclairs – pipe pistachio
white chocolate ganache on top of the éclair, then top with roast pistachio, fresh
strawberry and strawberry jelly.